Language and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Language

Without being too technical (we can always skip the hardest stuff), this book is a great introduction to further eventual philosophical inquiry. The authors' view on philosophy of language, being quite critical, is pretty interesting and sometimes surprising. Philosophy, according to them, should be empirical. Their arguments are pretty compeling, and the prose ok to understand or grasp most of it. However, if anyone would want to buy it just to read randomly pages or chapters inside, this book would not be the best choice. References to previous chapters can be find everywhere. This book is full of useful data, and needs to be read preferably in a logical way (i.e. from the beggining to the end): this book is not a text-book with articles that can be read independently. "Language and Reality" is pretty comprehensive; therefore it adresses certain things (theories) in a broad way to, most of the time, criticize them. The part talking about Wittgenstien (2pages) is disappointing. Even though we still can "grasp" the spirit of what he's done, it's not enough too me... Overall, this book is really good, and I mostly agree with the authors, especially about their theory of meaning that is not based on any picture or strict description.

As an English professor strongly interested in philosophy but still an amateur, I have read quite a number of philosophical introductions, and this is one of the best. Some introductions proceed by giving you a ground-up account of the basic issues and arguments. The effect can be rather dull. Others proceed philosopher by philosopher, giving accounts of important positions that have actually been taken. The effect can be confusing. This book combines both strategies quite successfully, avoiding the pitfalls of each. It provides clear, well-considered accounts of the basic issues but also introduces real philosophical interlocutors. The order of the chapters is cleverly devised so that one has the experience of a coherent exploration, becoming both wider and deeper as it goes. That the authors take a general position of their own is very helpful to beginners in orienting themselves within the discipline. Also, in the later sections of the book, the authors show the influence that certain positions in language philosophy have exercized in fields beyond--in the history of science, linguistics, literary criticism, and discussions of "culture." The reader comes away not only enlightened about the basic issues of the philosophy of language but convinced of their importance.